US Mathematics Students of the Trimester – Winter 2018

I am excited to announce the Upper School Mathematics Students of the Trimester – Winter 2018!

Each math faculty member was free to choose whichever student of theirs they thought best exemplified what they are looking for in a model mathematics student. The official description of the award is as follows:

“Awarded to students who exemplify the math department’s core values of competence, confidence, and perseverance while helping their peers realize the relevance and importance of an exceptional mathematical education both for its beauty and for its practical application.”

The following students have been recognized as the Upper School Mathematics Students of the Trimester for Winter 2018.

Please join me in congratulating these outstanding mathematics students!

A’Shaela Chaires – I am absolutely thrilled with the level of success A’Shaela has reached! As the course became more complex in the last several weeks of the trimester, A’Shaela leaned in even further and ended up totally dominating the last test and trimester assessment! She has continued to work effectively in groups and ask great questions each and every day. Bravo!
Annika Johnson – Annika is a perfect example of hard work and perseverance. She puts in a lot of time to reach her desired level of understanding while keeping detailed notes and showing careful process. Algebra does not come easily for her, but she is determined to learn and her dedication is impressive.
Insoo Kang – Insoo did exemplary work this trimester. His homework, class participation, tests, and project were all completed with enthusiasm. He and his project partner did an outstanding job displaying their solution to a problem that brought together their math skills with their athletic passion.
Artur Lysyuk – I allow my students to showcase their creativity and subject matter mastery in “out of the box” medium as these short video clips illustrate –This was self directed effort not a class assignment and they enjoyed the work and accomplishment. Their individual creativity is displayed. • https://youtu.be/ZorpXk-RKpA — Two Robots playing Toss, Catch, Grab with a Happy face on success– Autonomous Robot programming – by Artur Lysyuk and Michael Zhang. Artur helped Michael in a collaborative and supportive manner to finish this piece of construction and programming challenge.
MK O’Brien – MK is a hard worker and is always willing to help those around her. She has a great attitude and her positivity is contagious.
Abby Seltzer – Abby lights up the classroom for me. She is so involved, so focused, and so funny – a true pleasure to teach. She has great mathematical insight, but she always supplements that natural insight with diligent preparation and enthusiastic participation. She has an irreverent streak that entertains the whole class, and I love having her in Precal.
Daniel Simpson – Daniel has had an incredible trimester in geometry. He is intellectually curious and is determined to understand every aspect of a problem. Always willing to attend an extra help session, Daniel’s attention to detail is exceptional. The entire class has benefitted from Daniel’s outstanding class participation. He has set an example of academic excellence for other students to model. Congratulations Daniel. This is a well earned award!
Jaden Tanguay – Jaden brought an inspiring level of curiosity and creativity to Video Game Programming and Design this term. Jaden regularly pushed himself to learn and apply new concepts on his own and really extended his programming knowledge through his creative designs. His final project game was completely original and incorporated the user interface design, aesthetic, and coding components of a professional
Risa Tapanes – Risa has done impressive work in Topics class this year. She has shown her curiosity and diligence in every endeavor. As a class, we have taken on some unique and sophisticated topics in the field of data science. These topics include advanced concepts in statistics along with statistical programming techniques. Risa asks questions regularly in order to deepen and extend her understanding. She also has gone beyond the requirements of our programming tasks. Although she has many talents in and outside of the math classroom, she is on track to be a strong data scientist should she continue on this path. 
Michelle Tu – Michelle has been a consistently strong Honors Precalculus student this year. She has excellent insight into the material that we have covered thus far. She is consistently focused in class, and determined to learn the concepts well.
Ana Weed – Ana works so diligently both inside and outside of class. She is constantly engaged with individual and group activities. Ana asks the deeper questions that engage with the overarching concepts of the class and is able to apply statistics in many different situations. She performs the mathematics well but also uses proper and thorough notation and processes.
James White – James has put forth a diligent effort on all assignments. He pushes himself and the others around him to understand the material in depth on a daily basis. His determination to do his best has enable him to succeed at the highest level.

Past students of the trimester can be found right here: Fall 2013, Winter 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Winter 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2017

Calculus Projects!

This just in from Mrs. McCullagh:

Calculus students displayed their work on a challenging optimization problem. They were asked to plan a design to hang “something” from “somewhere”, and then determine the least amount of rope or wire needed.
Some of the things they chose to hang included a Williston medallion from the Golden Gate Bridge, a disco ball from Eiffel Tower, a circus hoop from the circus tent, a tire swing from a tree, and a target in a hockey goal. They needed to plan how far apart the hangers would be and how far down their item would hang. They then used Calculus to find the minimum amount of rope or wire needed for the project. Their presentations needed to include all of their calculations and drawing to support their work and solutions. They also needed to build a model to represent their solution.